I was critical last week and rightly so. I thought Wales were lethargic and
lacking in invention until the game was lost shortly after half-time.

Fast forward seven days and I take my hat off to Wales, each and every one of them. I thought they were magnificent – from start to finish. They have restored my faith in the national team.

At the outset, I have to say that I thought France were just as poor today as they had been in Italy. To be honest, I have not seen such a clueless, hopeless and inept international side for some time. But that is not to take anything away from Wales, who ground out a first win in nine games and a truly vital one too.

It certainly restores some of the faith that people had lost in them. I will say, however, that I was one of very few people who felt we could go out there and win. I just thought that we could not be as bad as we were last week and against a French side like this, there was always a chance. I think we have played better than this and lost. In fact I know we have. There were two games in Australia in the summer when we were outstanding but made careless errors late on and went on to lose. On this occasion, we were not at our best, but were good enough to grind out a win. After what has befallen the side since the end of last season, that was the most important statistic of all.

It was clear that the players wanted to win so much. They had been hurt by the criticism in midweek and they responded well. It puts us back on track and hopefully on the way to one or two more wins. Because believe me, had we have lost this, we were staring down the barrel of five defeats. What’s more, as bad as France were, if we can win in Paris, we can beat anyone anywhere.

People said in the week that we should make wholesale changes. There was talk of six or seven alterations. The coaches decided against it, but for me, they made two crucial alterations with Justin Tipuric and Ryan Jones coming into the side. Both were fantastic. I am so pleased for Ryan, who is a very good friend. He led the side wonderfully well.

Wales needed to get up in the faces of the French and they did it well. They prevented the French from getting going and as the game wore on, you could hear how the French crowd was getting restless. That is always a good sign in Paris.

By the time George North powered his way over in the corner with 10 minutes remaining, there were boos ringing around the ground and when time the final whistle finally went, thousands had already left courtesy of a wonderful Welsh performance.

Yes, there is room for improvement. I thought we kicked away possession too often and that would be my only criticism of Dan Biggar, who had a decent game. Tipuric was outstanding on the openside and really came of age on the international stage and I have to say that Andrew Coombs was excellent too for a young, inexperienced player playing only his second Test. They epitomise all that is good about traditional Welsh rugby values – honest forwards with a will to win. But nobody compares with Leigh Halfpenny. I am reluctant to keep on building him up, but he really is some player.

Going back to the kicking side of our game, maybe it is simply a problem throughout the modern game, so I do not want to be too critical. However, players appear to be content with kicking away ball when surely keeping it in hand and trusting yourselves would be better. When we did that, we showed how good we can be.

Our scrum showed a few signs of weakness against Ireland last week and once again today, there were issues. Having said that, I was watching the game with the former Wales prop Jeremy Pugh and he could not understand why Adam Jones was being penalised. Nor could I. It is not often that Adam is whistled up.

So, France have gone from pre-tournament favourites to the also-rans of the 2013 Six Nations and Wales are finally back on track.

We should be grateful for that alone. Now, Rob Howley must take them to Italy and Scotland where they need to win both games. That would set up a wonderful final weekend with England in Cardiff.